Zombie Love: Making It Work
by mandassina
Summary: If Tosh and Owen could have had a relationship, what would it be like?  Written for last year's LiveJournal Torchwood Fest Halloween Fest.
1. The Inconveniences of Being Dead

**Disclaimer: **Torchwood is not mine. I just like playing with its characters. Torchwood the series is property of BBC and Russel T Davies.

**Summary: **Tosh and Owen remember key moments in their relationship as they take the next step, spending the night together. Written for the Torchwood Halloween Fest over on LiveJournal, Prompt 6: What would it be like if Owen and Tosh could have had a relationship?

_Zombie Love:_

_Making it Work_

_Chapter One_

_The Inconveniences of Being Dead_

Owen frowned when the bed shuddered beneath him and cursed quietly when he saw that the jostling had made him type _ju[irjedod_ instead of _hypothesis. _He backspaced over the word and tried again just as another violent shake made him type _nhlkgndxkx_.

Smiling down at his bed mate, who was nothing but a lump under the covers and the shiny black hair at the crown of her head, he asked, "What are you playing at?"

"Nrglfnt."

He wondered how he might spell that.

Another powerful tremor shook the bed and he frowned as his companion wriggled against him.

"Tosh?"

"Mmfp."

"Toshiko, what's wrong?" he demanded, finally pulling the covers back.

"N-n-nothing," she gasped, blinking in the light. "J-j-just a l-little c-cold."

"Bollocks," Owen snarled, angry that she hadn't said anything earlier. He didn't need to take her temperature to know how cold she was. Curled into a tight ball beside him, Toshiko was pale and trembling. Her face was pinched and drawn almost as if she was in pain, and her skin was covered in goose bumps. "Uncontrolled shivering is an indicator of stage-one hypothermia. We have to get you warmed up."

"'M f-fine, Owen," Tosh insisted.

"Excuse me, Dr. Sato, but those letters after your name are Ph.D., aren't they?" Owen asked. Without waiting for an answer, he continued, "Whereas mine are M.D., you're not fine until _I_ say you are fine."

Slipping off the bed, he stretched across the mattress and easily scooped her up in his arms. Death had made him immune to the pain that often stopped most people from using their muscles to the limit of their capacity, so like an addict high on PCP, he was capable of seemingly super-human feats of strength. Lifting a hundred pounds of beautiful, evil computer genius from the far side of the double bed was nothing.

"C-careful!" Tosh warned him anyway because she knew that, unlike a junkie, Owen would not heal from any damage he caused himself. One pulled muscle or torn tendon might even go unnoticed, but an accumulation of unhealed minor injuries over an indefinite, or possibly infinite, existence would eventually leave him broken and helpless.

"You don't need to worry about me," Owen assured her as he carried her into the bathroom and set her on her feet. He wasn't particularly worried about her condition at the moment. Cuddling a corpse that hadn't yet had the sense to stop moving about was bound to give one the chills, and a soak in a nice, hot bath followed by a cup of tea and some chocolate biscuits was all she would need to warm her up. Then they could figure out how to keep it from happening again.

Owen turned on the heater and started drawing water. "Test it before you get in," he reminded her. "I have no way of knowing how hot it is. Why didn't you tell me you were cold?"

"D-didn't want to h-hurt your feelings," Tosh said as she snuggled deep into the terry robe he wrapped around her shoulders.

"Excuse me?" Owen feigned confusion. "My what?"

Tosh scowled at him. "Not funny. You try so hard to hide it, but I'm not the only one who can tell that you have a sensitive side and can still be hurt."

Owen smiled, relieved that she had gotten the whole long sentence out without her teeth chattering. Already her shivers were lessening as the heater blew balmy air about the small room. Still, he wanted her in the bath just to be sure she was thoroughly warmed up. "Naturally you thought I would feel much better about having you freeze to death as you snuggled beside me, yeah?"

"S-sorry," she stammered, but this time, he thought it had more to do with embarrassment than with being cold.

"Don't be," he said, trying to sound reassuring. "I appreciate the consideration, Tosh, but if this . . . whatever it is we're trying to have between us is going to work out, we have to solve our problems, not ignore them."

"This from the man who never wants to talk about his feelings," Tosh said wryly.

"Oh, we are most definitely going to ignore _feelings_!" Owen said, mocking the word with his tone. "But if we don't fix the physical, medical, and practical problems, we might as well say to hell with it."

Tosh glowered at him for a moment, and then nodded. "Agreed. So, I'm going to soak in the bath while you . . . ?"

"Make you a cup of tea," Owen supplied. "Then we'll sort out how we can share a bed without freezing you half to death." Satisfied that she would do what he wanted, he lingered no more. Despite the creative, and sometimes kinky, ways they had found to achieve intimacy since that horrible night at SkyPoint, Tosh was still amusingly self-conscious about being naked in front of him.

Tosh sighed and sank chin deep into the bubbles Owen had added to her bathwater. She couldn't have stopped the smile that came to her face if she had wanted to. He worked so hard to maintain his image as a thoughtless, inconsiderate prat because that was his warped version of what it meant to be manly, but then he went and did something sweet like this without a moment's thought. It was like she got to see a secret side of him that no one else knew, and she loved it.

She loved him, always had, and despite the frequent hurdles and missteps, she was grateful for the opportunity to have a relationship with him. She could only hope he was happy with her and not just settling because he couldn't very well date outside of Torchwood anymore.

"Stop it!" she commanded herself. "You've had this conversation before, more than once. He wouldn't work this hard to make you happy if he didn't really care."

And it had been hard work, for both of them, starting from the first date.

_Owen arrived at her door sharply dressed in a fine wool suit and white shirt. He had jokingly told her to put on her 'best frock' so she was wearing an off-the-shoulder little black dress that had just a bit of sparkle. They made a handsome couple as they made their way out of the building and down the street to Owen's car, and Toshiko liked the way people looked at them. _

_As they parked in front of the restaurant, Owen recommended the veal scaloppini and without thinking, Toshiko asked what he would be ordering. His expression went wooden, and Toshiko knew this had been his standby 'impress-the-girl' date that he automatically went to every time he really liked someone and wanted her to like him back. She decided not to ask how long it had been since he'd brought someone here or whether he'd come to this place with Diane._

_"Owen, I'm sorry," she apologized._

_"Not your fault," he assured her. "Dead men don't eat. Don't know what in bloody hell I was thinking."_

_Feeling awkward, Toshiko pressed her lips together and looked away as his suave façade crumbled._

_"Stupid arse I am, making dinner reservations for our first date," he muttered to himself. "I mean really, what am I supposed to do, sit there and watch you eat? Fuck." Slamming his hands on the steering wheel, he shouted again, "Fuck!"_

_Watching Owen get angry was bizarrely frightening and fascinating. With no breath, he couldn't breathe heavily and without blood circulation, he didn't flush with anger. He just cursed louder and louder and thumped the car harder and harder._

_"Stupid bloody fucking arse!" he shouted, and from the tone of his voice, Tosh really believed there would have been tears of frustration had his body been able to produce them._

_"Stop it," she finally told him, and put her hands over his to stop him pounding on the steering wheel. He couldn't feel how hard he hit things anymore and she didn't want to witness him breaking any more bones. _

_"There's no reason we can't still have a good time," she said. "We can just skip dinner and go straight to dancing."_

_"Club doesn't open until ten o'clock," Owen grumbled. "And you must be famished. What are we going to do for two hours?"_

_"Well, we could sit in the car and sulk," she teased, grinning when he scowled at her, "or we can go do something else."_

_"What about dinner?" he growled._

_"Well, I appreciate the thought, but I wouldn't enjoy it if you can only sit there and watch," she said, really meaning it. "I'm sure we'll think of something else." _

_He'd wound up buying her a pasty and an alcopop, and they'd gone for a walk in Victoria Park. There, they came across a group of students practicing in the bandstand and danced the night away under the stars. Their first date had gone nothing like either of them had anticipated, but it had been a lovely evening all the same._

Toshiko smiled again. Owen was trying very hard to make this relationship work for them. At first, he was easily frustrated when things didn't go to plan, which was odd for a man who prided himself on being able to improvise; but as Toshiko had shown him time and again that she was willing to adapt and adjust to the difficulties they experienced, he had learned to relax and take things as they came. Now, the inconveniences of being dead only got him worked up when it made things bad for her, like this evening.

Tosh sighed again. She should have spoken up sooner. Why couldn't anything come naturally for them?

TBC


	2. The Facts of Life, Such As It Is

_Zombie Love:_

_Making it Work_

_Chapter Two_

_The Facts of Life, Such As It Is_

Out in the kitchen, Owen tried not to be angry as he waited for the kettle to boil. Tosh should have said something sooner, certainly before she became hypothermic; but she was trying to be sensitive and not hurt his feelings. Try as he might, he couldn't get her to understand that the only real pleasures he had in life now were psychic thrills and one of the biggest was simply making her happy. It bothered him that she couldn't believe that was important to him.

He thought he'd finally gotten through to her when they'd sorted out snogging. With the bitter taste of adrenaline flooding her mouth as she, Owen, and Jamie Burton fled Duroc, Tosh apparently hadn't noticed anything strange about Owen's kiss when he snogged her to get the alien lock picking device away from her. When he'd kissed her good night after their first date, she'd given a little yelp, which he mistakenly took for a sound of delight. So naturally, he'd been a bit put out when he'd planned their next date around a chick flick and a bowl of popcorn on his sofa and she'd turned her head to offer him her cheek every time he leaned in for a kiss.

_Determined that they would start snogging in earnest as soon as the credits rolled, Owen muted the volume and turned to Tosh. As he slid his right arm around her waist and his left hand into her hair and pulled her to him, she shoved the popcorn bowl into his gut. He didn't feel it except as an obstruction, so he didn't fully realize how hard she was trying to use it to make him keep his distance. Taking it from her hands and setting it on the coffee table, he pulled her close again and pressed his lips to hers._

_His tongue met barred teeth and she pushed him away with a muffled grunt._

_"God, Owen! What do you think you're doing?"_

_"Well, I thought I was going to kiss my girlfriend, but she appears to have other ideas," he replied sarcastically. "If there's some backwards Japanese custom about consenting adults not kissing on the second date, tell me and I will honour it; but I'm not superstitious that way, so if I'm doing something wrong, you need to let me know."_

_"Backward?" Tosh gasped in shock. "Superstitious?" Giving him a slap that would have stung mightily if he had been able to feel it, she barked, "Twat!"_

_As it was, Owen stared at her implacably. "Well, then, what is it?" he demanded. "Because I'm pretty sure we've known each other long enough to be snogging by now."_

_"I – I – It's nothing," Tosh insisted. "I just . . . I don't feel like it."_

_"Why? Have you had root canal lately? Do you have a crown coming loose?" he teased. "I've got it! You don't want me to find out you wear dentures!"_

_She couldn't resist the smirk he was giving her and with a chuckle asked, "Do want to get slapped again?"_

_Owen grew serious. "No, but I do want to know why you won't let me kiss you," he said. "I mean, if you're having second thoughts . . . well, I can't say I won't be hurt, but I . . ."_

_"Oh, no, it's not that!" Tosh hurried to reassure him. "It's just that I . . ."_

_"Please don't lie to me," Owen insisted when he saw her averting her eyes._

_Tosh sighed and met his gaze. "If you must know, your mouth is terribly dry. It makes your tongue feel like an emery board, and . . . Owen I'm sorry, but you taste like meat that's just a little off."_

_"Now, don't sugar coat it, Toshiko," he said. "Tell me how you really feel."_

_Scowling, Tosh said, "I didn't want to hurt your feelings."_

_"And you really think telling a zombie that he tastes of rancid meat would hurt more than rejecting him every time he tried to kiss you?" Owen asked._

_"I was hoping to think of a solution before I had to tell you."_

_"I see," he nodded sagely and then gave her an impish smirk. "Epic fail." The he just continued to smirk at her as she stuttered and stammered and tried to think of something to say and then finally dissolved in a fit of giggles when she realized she hadn't crushed his sometimes-fragile self-esteem._

_Finally catching her breath, she sat upright and asked him, "So it seriously doesn't upset you, what I said?"_

_Owen shrugged. "I'm not happy about it, but what's to get upset about, really? It's just a fact of . . . for lack of a better word, life, such as it is."_

_"So, what do we do now?" she asked._

_Owen went unnaturally still and Toshiko recognized it immediately as his thinking posture. Where another man would scratch his head or his cheek or rub the back of his neck when thinking, Owen, because his body didn't feel itches or tension the way it used to, would just sit still and cogitate. Tosh was beginning to fidget, another thing Owen never did anymore because he didn't feel nervous energy, when he finally answered._

_"Well, you're a genius and I'm bloody brilliant, so I guess now, we fix it."_

_And that was just what they did. Within two weeks, they had a long-lasting, ingestible lubricant with a mild topical anaesthetic to numb Tosh's taste buds to Owen's faint tang of rotting flesh. It could be mixed with any ordinary extract from the baking aisle at the nearest Tesco, but Tosh preferred some of the more exotic flavours from the Indian and Chinese groceries down the block. It was the perfect solution to their problem and they were both pleased that their colleagues hadn't even seemed to notice the amount of Torchwood time they had devoted to their personal research._

_Then, on the day Owen declared the final formula complete in a private IM to Toshiko, to his chagrin and Tosh's abject mortification, Jack came bounding out of his office requesting a sample._

Owen snorted a laugh as he turned off the whistling kettle and started making the tea. He had been mildly embarrassed by the incident. Toshiko had been infinitely humiliated. It had taken her days to be able to look her colleagues in the eye again, but that hadn't stopped her from letting him snog her three nights that first week.

TBC


	3. Trial and Error

_Zombie Love_

_Making It Work_

_Chapter Three_

_Trial and Error_

Tosh moaned and touched herself beneath the water, imagining it was Owen doing wonderful things to her. Once they had sorted out their special lubricant, he had proven to be the best lover she had ever had, not that there had been many. Still, he was attentive, considerate, eager to please, and knew just how far he could push her.

Well, most of the time.

_"So, that's the same stuff we use for snogging?" she asked anxiously. After the embarrassment Jack had caused her, she had been reluctant to do any more experimenting with personal products, but after six weeks of passionate kissing, groping, fondling, and teasing, Owen was determined to see to it that she would have something resembling a real sex life, and she was just desperate enough to let him._

_"Exactly the same, minus the anaesthetic and with a higher concentration of flavour," he assured her._

_"Why flavour it?" she asked._

_"Well, love, I still intend to snog you," he explained, "and I think the flavours I've chosen will have some other effects as well."_

_"E-Effects?" she stammered as he rubbed his palm in circles over one of her nipples. His palm was smooth, but the lace bodice of her peignoir did delicious things to her as it slid between his hand and the sensitive little bud. "Wh-What effects?"_

_"Oh, darlin'," he teased in a warm, buttery voice that could make her wet with just those two words. "You're just going to have to try it and see." As he waited for her answer, he ever-so-slowly ran his finger down her midline only to stop just at the edge of the little patch of hair between her legs. _

_She whimpered and writhed against him, trying to get his touch just a bit further down on her body, and he pulled his hand away._

_"So, what'll it be, love?" he asked her. "More snogging, or are you ready to try something new?"_

_"Prat!" she complained. "You know what I want! Just do it."_

_He gave a lusty chuckle and captured her mouth in a passionate kiss. The cool mint took her breath away, or was that his finger stroking her between her legs? Soon her limbs were trembling, her body was writhing and her head was whirling. Somewhere between sucking her nipple and biting her thigh, he had switched from mint to cinnamon and the heat in his kisses left her lips burning for more._

_It could have been minutes or days until he eventually went down on her, she really didn't know, but finally he was licking and gently sucking her clit, sliding his tongue in and out of her, along her labia, across her perineum, and the heat was wonderful almost to the point of pain. And then she was coming, so fast and so hard it took her breath away. Her first orgasm had barely begun to fade when a second and then a third washed over her and for a moment, everything went black._

_When she returned to planet Earth, Toshiko felt sated and sweaty, completely relaxed and utterly exhausted. She smiled foolishly up at Owen who was lying beside her, head propped up on one hand, looking thoroughly pleased with himself and completely unruffled except for the slight gloss of her juices around his mouth._

_"Christ, you're beautiful!" he whispered._

_"Thank you," she replied, and squirmed slightly as something started to tingle between her thighs. Then she shifted again as the tingle began to sting. Then she was dancing on the floor fighting the urge to scream as the sting became a painful burn. _

_"God, Owen, what did you do!" she demanded, sounding slightly panicked. "What did you do to me?"_

_"What do you mean?" he asked, baffled by her sudden change in demeanour._

_"It hurts!" she shouted. "That's what I mean! What was in that stuff?"_

_"Well, ah, just a **little** chilli oil," he said, meekly holding his thumb and forefinger about half an inch apart._

_"Chilli! Why, I . . . you . . . If you weren't already dead I'd kill you!" she gasped as the burn kept getting worse. _

_"But you like hot foods!" Owen objected._

_"Well, you didn't bloody put it in my mouth, now, did you?" she snarled and dashed for the bathroom._

_With surprising speed, Owen was out of the bed and restraining her. She squirmed and kicked to get away from him, but she was no match for his strength. _

_"You can't use water to wash it off," he said. "That will only spread the burn to places that I didn't get."_

_"Then what will get rid of it?" she demanded._

_Without a moment's thought, Owen had her by the wrist and was leading her to the kitchen. "Ice cream," he said._

_Tosh planted her feet. "You are **not** putting ice cream down **there**!" she said._

_"Fine then, yoghurt, sour cream, anything like that will do," he said, dragging her along with more strength than his slender frame appeared to possess. "The slight acidity neutralizes the pH of the capsaicinoid and the fat helps dissolve it."_

_Peeling his fingers off her wrist, she asked, "Where's the anaesthetic lube?"_

_Owen gave her a blank look. "In the nightstand, my side of the bed," he told her. "But that pint of Ben and Jerry's in the freezer will work better."_

_"I don't bloody care," she snapped as she darted across the room and dashed into the bathroom, the floaty chiffon of her peignoir fluttering after her._

Owen chuckled at the memory of that night as he lifted the teabag out of the cup and stirred in the milk and sugar. It had taken him hours to convince her that it was an honest mistake, the result of an overzealous attempt to thrill her, and not a cruel practical joke. Trial and error seemed to be their _modus operandi_ of late, but at least nothing had gone seriously wrong. Of course, Tosh might have a different idea of seriously wrong. She certainly hadn't held back to spare his feelings on the chilli oil idea. When he'd pointed out that it hadn't actually hurt her, she went to great lengths to impress upon him how much it actually _did_ hurt. Her description was so vivid it had him cringing and he relented and corrected himself to say it hadn't actually _harmed_ her.

Then she had called him a prat for always having to be right. He had shouted at her asking what more she wanted after he had agreed with her. They had both sulked for a while, and then they made up with what had come to pass for sex with them.

It was all so disturbingly . . . _normal_.

That had been nearly a month ago. Owen wasn't sure why, but until tonight, neither of them had spent the night in the other's bed. Certainly part of it had to be that he never slept, but somehow, he had the feeling that Toshiko was waiting for something, too. Whatever it was, it had apparently happened, because tonight had been her idea.

TBC


	4. The Gift

_Zombie Love_

_Making It Work_

_Chapter Four_

_The Gift_

Putting some chocolate biscuits on a plate and the teacup on a saucer, Owen headed back to the bedroom. The saucer was completely unnecessary, except that it looked nice under the cup and Toshiko liked things to look nice. Being dead, Owen suffered none of the minute muscle tremors that often caused people to spill liquids when they were carrying a vessel that was a bit too full.

He'd left the bedroom door open a crack so all he had to do to get back in was nudge it a bit with his foot. It swung open and he was greeted with the sight of Toshiko, snuggled up in her cotton terry robe, sitting on an electric blanket that she had spread over the bed.

"I see you've found a solution already," he commented.

"Well, it's worth a try," she agreed, accepting the tea and indicating that he should put the biscuits on the night stand. "I think you should get in first."

Owen nodded. "Good idea," he agreed sliding under the covers. "Warm me up before you get into bed so I don't draw any body heat from you."

"Well, that's part of the plan," she said.

"Oh, there's a plan this time? What a novel idea."

She gave him a playful shove and then turned to sit facing him on the edge of the bed. Taking a small, burgundy velvet bag out of her pocket, she said, "I have a present for you."

Owen couldn't hide his surprise. It was a paradox of his condition that autonomic functions like digestion, respiration, circulation, and elimination didn't work anymore, but his voluntary facial muscles still responded automatically to many emotions.

"A present? For me? But it's not Christmas, and it ain't my birthday."

Tosh smiled. "I've always thought it was stupid to wait for a special day to give a present to someone you love," she said.

Owen was surprised to feel a lump form in his throat. Speechless, he just stared at the little velvet bag.

"Go on, open it," Tosh nudged him.

He loosened the drawstring and dumped a slightly curved, matte-finished, silver disc, about two inches in diameter into the palm of his hand. Red, green, and yellow diodes flashed on the convex surface, and the concave surface was stippled with hundreds of shiny silver contacts.

"It's pretty, but . . ."

"What is it?" Tosh finished for him.

Owen nodded.

"Well, it doesn't have a name yet, but it's sort of a lens to focus thought energy, specifically memories," Tosh explained.

"Ahh," Owen said sagely, nodding again.

Tosh smirked at him. "And you're still wondering why I gave it to you, aren't you?"

"That transparent, am I?"

"Well, to be fair, the purpose of this gift isn't necessarily readily apparent," Toshiko admitted.

"Ah, so, does that mean you have no bloody idea why you gave it to me either?" Tosh giggled and Owen grinned. He loved that sound. "So, seriously, Toshiko, what's it good for?"

"Well, memory is a very powerful thing," she said in the same instructive tone she used to explain complicated alien tech. "When you think about people with post traumatic stress, their flashbacks can be so real that they can lose touch with reality and see, hear, smell, and feel as if they are back in the traumatic moment again."

"All right, but what does that have to do with me?" Owen asked.

"Well, you remember sex, don't you?" Tosh smirked.

Owen scowled. "Yeah, but with no blood flow and no sensation . . . I don't _want_ to remember it, Tosh!" He threw off the covers and got out of the bed. He was angry and hurt that she could be so thoughtless and if he had possessed tears, he might well have started to weep.

"If I think about all the things I've lost . . . God!" He loomed over her shouting with impotent fury. "You may be bloody brilliant Toshiko, but sometimes you have the emotional IQ of a fucking turnip! Why in hell would I want to remember the most fantastic feelings in the world knowing that I will never have them again?"

Owen turned his back on her and stalked across the bedroom to stare out at the city lights below. After a moment, Tosh came over and put a comforting hand on his shoulder. He gave no indication of whether he felt her touch or was just ignoring her, so she reached out and cupped his chin so she could turn his head to face her.

"That's my point, Owen, you haven't lost those feelings," she said gently. Tapping his temple, she told him, "They're all locked away up there, in memories. The EEGs we've been doing prove that you still have brainwaves, and the device I made can focus and intensify them. The mind is the most powerful sex organ in the human body, and yours still works brilliantly. You can feel all those wonderful things again, in your head, just as real as the moment they happened."

Owen gave a derisive snort. "Fantasy is hardly satisfying once you've had the real thing."

"It's not a fantasy, Owen, it's a real experience," she explained. "One that you've already had and can enjoy again, with perfect fidelity to the original, after a little practice. I've tested the device. It works."

Owen scowled at her again. "You tested it?"

Tosh nodded.

"Please don't tell me you used Janet," he begged.

Tosh snickered. "Don't be ridiculous. We don't know enough about Weevils' cognitive abilities or psychosexuality for them to make viable test subjects."

"But then who . . . ?" Owen shook his head. "I don't want to know." The Torchwood pool of potential human guinea pigs was small, and he really didn't want to know his other colleagues quite that well.

"So, you've been inventing sex toys, have you?" he teased. "You little minx."

"Well, it will have other applications," Tosh tried to defend herself.

Owen snorted. "But they're not what you designed it for. You know, given what it's supposed to do, focusing memories to simulate sex and all that, I can't believe you've overlooked the obvious name for it."

Tosh frowned. Knowing she wouldn't like what he was about to call her invention and that he didn't really expect her to take him seriously, she gave in and asked, "All right, what do you think I should call it?"

"It's a mind-fuck," he smirked.

Tosh rolled her eyes and said, "I think I'll just call it the device until I can think of something more . . . appropriate. So, are you willing to try it?"

Owen hesitated a moment and then nodded. He let her lead him back over to the bed and tucked him in beneath the covers. First, she applied a little conductive gel to the contact side of the device and centred it on his forehead. Then she put noise-reducing ear buds in his ears and a black satin sleep mask over his eyes. Finally, he felt her settle at the foot of the bed. Everything went still then, and in the dark and the silence, he began to panic.

"T-Tosh?" he called out. "Tosh, I don't like the dark. I don't like being alone in the dark."

"You're not alone, Owen," her voice came soothingly through the ear buds. "I'm here."

"So, wh-what do I do?" he asked, hating the tremor in his voice. He still didn't understand the mechanism that allowed his body to betray certain emotions yet prevented his fingers from feeling a pulse.

"Just relax and try to remember a satisfying sexual experience," she said.

"But, I've never had sex with you," he reminded her, hoping it didn't hurt her feelings.

"That's all right," she said, her voice whispering reassuringly in his ear. "You've worked so hard to make this a fulfilling relationship for me. I want to do the same for you. If that means helping you relive pleasant memories with your past lovers, I can do that. Maybe with practice, you can imagine having me there, but this time, just remember something fantastic you did with someone else."

Owen felt immensely grateful that she wasn't jealous of his past partners, or that if she was, at least she could set those feelings aside for his benefit. He didn't think any of his other women had ever loved him that selflessly. Even if the device didn't work, he would always appreciate her effort.

"J-just keep talking to me, at least until that thing gets fired up, ok? I really don't think you could ever understand how much I hate being alone in the dark."

"I'm here, Owen," she promised him. "You're not going to be alone. Just relax and focus on one memory. Talk about it, if it helps."

"You won't mind?" he asked anxiously.

"Not at all," she swore. "This is all about you."

"Well, there was this one night with Diane . . . "

TBC


	5. Normal

_Zombie Love_

_Making It Work_

_Chapter Five_

_Normal_

_He'd bought her a long, red dress. The colour was as perfect for her complexion as the cut was for her figure. He'd wanted something romantic and private, so he'd taken her to a rooftop car park for champagne and dancing under the full moon. It had been fun to flirt and hearing her call him her lover had done something to him he hadn't quite expected. Holding her close to him, her arms around him as they swayed to the strains of Tony Bennett singing 'The Good Life' had made him happier than he could remember being since Katie. When she said, 'let's go home,' meaning his home, he felt warm all over and in more than one way. _

_She was a good match for him, aggressive enough that he knew she wanted him, submissive enough at the right times to feed his ego and let him feel like the one in charge, and God, she was beautiful. Her kisses tasted mostly of champagne with a slight toasty note from the tobacco she smoked, and when she shoved him up against the window wall of his flat, he knew exactly how the rest of the evening was going to go._

_They took their time undressing each other, undoing a zip or a couple of buttons every few minutes. The anticipation was delicious agony as her hands wandered over his body and his lips lingered over hers. Finally, **finally** they made it into the bed._

_He sat upright, one hand on the bed behind him to maintain balance and give him leverage, the other arm around her, with her straddling his hips as he thrust into her. Her skin was warm beneath his touch, smooth, and slick with perspiration, and he could feel the bumps of her vertebrae as he slid a hand up her back. She panted into his mouth as she rode him, each harsh little breath coming in time with his thrusts in between his kisses. Her long, dark hair tickled his fingers and she raked her fingers over his scalp. Her hand slid down his back and up again, curved around the back of his neck, kneading his flesh, her nails sometimes scratching him lightly. _

_He fought to maintain a steady pace. His thrusts became more forceful and urgent, lifting her slightly off the bed with each one, as he struggled not to rush the moment. She curled up close against him and nestled her head in the curve of his shoulder, her entire body clenching tighter and tighter around him. She wrapped her arms around him, holding him close, raking her fingers over his scalp again and again until the last moment. Then she pushed back so they could see each other's faces as they took off together._

_They came quietly, going very still except for a couple of small gentle thrusts from Owen. He felt a brilliant warmth akin to joy flush through him and cradled her safely against him when the force of her orgasm made her falter. Sitting there, with their bodies locked together, he smelled their sex, kissed her forehead and tasted her sweat. She tipped her head back and their lips met, and he brought his arms around her, kissing the moist skin on her shoulder and holding on for dear life because he never, ever wanted to let her go._

As Tosh sat on the foot of the bed, watching Owen and fine tuning the device with her laptop, she noticed his body start to respond as his brainwaves focused. He was still mumbling about champagne and dancing when he suddenly went quiet and started to move. Even under the blanket, she could see when his limbs tensed. Then his thigh muscles started to relax and contract rhythmically.

As the brainwave pattern tightened even more, he began to moan and murmur quietly. He tilted his head back, dislodging the sleep mask as he turned this way and that as if to give someone better access to his throat. His arms writhed and twisted under the covers as if he was running his hands over something, or someone, trying to touch every part of it at once. He started to thrust slightly, raising his pelvis up from the mattress just a bit, as he wrapped his arms tight around himself. His lip curled, and he actually gasped as he went completely rigid. Then he trembled slightly and relaxed completely.

His eyes popped open. The pupils were widely dilated.

"Christ, Tosh! That was bloody amazing!" He sat upright and pulled her into a crushing hug. "Thank you, Tosh! God, you're bloody brilliant! Thank you, Toshiko. Thank you."

He leaned back to give her a kiss, and she gasped.

"Owen! You're . . . Why, you're _crying_."

"Don't be ridiculous love, I haven't got any tears."

"But you do," she said, dabbing at the corner of his eye. "Look!"

He stared at the glistening moisture on her fingers and felt as if he had been pole axed. That wasn't possible. It _shouldn't_ _be_ possible. It was more than he could wrap his head around right then, so he dropped back into bed taking Toshiko with him.

"Christ, Tosh, what the hell are we doing?"

She leaned up and kissed away another drop of moisture at the corner of his eye. "Same thing as every other normal couple in the world," she told him. "We're just . . . making it work."

He snorted a laugh, squeezed her close, and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "Normal, eh?"

Tosh shrugged as she settled the electric blanket over her. "Why not?"

Owen nodded as she nestled against him. "I like it." And he reached out to turn off the bedside lamp. He doubted he would suddenly start sleeping again tonight, but he wouldn't spend it alone in the dark, either.

The End


End file.
